Podnews Daily - podcast industry news
Daily news for the podcast and on-demand audio industry - from Apple Podcasts to Spotify, YouTube Music to Joe Rogan. Podnews also covers the latest jobs and events and trending shows in a short update every weekday. editor@podnews.net - visit https://podnews.net to get our free newsletter.
Episode 4,000 for Adam Carolla
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Adam Carolla celebrated his 4,000th episode with an interview with Jay Leno. His first episode was published on Feb 23, 2009, days after his radio show on KLSX ended. Descript has announced a set of new pricing plans, which new subscribers will get from Tuesday next week. There are currently no changes for existing customers; however, all plans will be updated later this year to include charging by âmedia minutesâ and âAI creditsâ. Will Jimmy...Big increase in podcast listening in Canada
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In Canada, monthly podcast listening has grown 19% year-on-year, and now 46% of all Canadians listen every month. That data is newly released from Signal Hill Insights, just in time for PodSummit YYC in Calgary, which kicks off tomorrow. In July, Podnews covered Spanish public broadcaster RTVE, who blocked downloads from some open RSS podcast apps in favour of its own proprietary one. Weâre delighted to report that users of AntennaPod are now...YouTube announces dynamic ads and AI editing
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YouTube announced a number of new services, including ways to grab the best bits from long-form podcasts to automatically make shorts; enhance live streams; add AI editing; and enable dynamically-inserted sponsorship messages (so you can âremove the sponsorship when the deal is complete, resell the slot to another brand or eventually sell the same slot to multiple brands in different marketsâ). The lack of dynamic ads has been a significant pain p...The massive podcast market weâre all ignoring
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âIgnoring Brazil isnât just shortsighted â itâs bad business.â Renato Bontempo, the founder of the Brazil-based production company Bicho de Goiaba, writes for Podnews today with some astonishing figures about podcastingâs success in the country - a top 3 country in the world for podcast consumption, but mostly ignored by larger podcast companies. iOS 26 has gone live on iPhone with a set of enhancements to Apple Podcasts. A new AI-powered âenhance dialogue...Planning for the unexpected
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Itâs something thatâs a little awkward, but... if something happens to you, what happens to your podcast and your digital estate? Weâve compiled a set of things you should do - some will take just a few minutes - to make it easier for your colleagues and your loved ones should something happen to you. Recent events show us that weâre not always in control of what happens to us in life: so...Independent Podcast Awards announce shortlist
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Apologies for the delay today due to travel
The UKâs Independent Podcast Awards announced its 2025 shortlist. The event is on Oct 15 in London. Of note (for all podcast awards, everywhere!) the shortlist page links to an âIndependent Podcasts room on Apple Podcastsâ. SiriusXMâs Earwolf, which suffered layoffs earlier in the year, closed its New York studio last week. Jared OâConnell took a photograph of the autographed signature studio table before it...On Air Fest expands
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After eight years, On Air Fest is to expand, âinto an always-on cultural organization producing live shows, special projects, and brand + creator collaborationsâ. The Ambies awards ceremony will be part of On Air Fest in NYC next February. On Air @ Ludlow House is to host live tapings with creative storytellers and podcasters every fortnight; there is also the return of On Air Fest LA in November. (Disclosures) A new podcast and radio production service run by a...The podcast factory making 3,000 episodes a week
Sponsored by SoundStack Marketplace. More revenue secures the future of podcasting/streaming. Monetize shows easily in SoundStack Marketplace and keep great content flourishing.
How many shows do you make every day? A new podcast network is using AI to flood podcast directories with more than 3,000 new episodes a week - and only four content staff. Itâs from a company called Inception Point AI, headed up by former Wondery COO Jeanine Wright; shows are made for an apparent cost of just $1 an episode; and Spreakerâs programmatic ads mean shows can get into profit after as little as 20 list...Blubrry CEO Todd Cochrane has died
Todd Cochrane, the CEO of Blubrry Podcasting and an independent podcaster, has died. He was 61.
In a statement from the company, Blubrryâs Barry Kantz said: âHis leadership, passion, and belief in independent creators guided Blubrry from day one. Toddâs impact on our company, our team, and the entire podcasting community is immeasurable.â
Podnews today carries a full obituary - from his time in the United States Navy, via his dial-up bulletin boards and Geek News Central, to his successful podcast company.
The New Media Show will air a final memorial episode with lon...
Taylor Swift made New Heights 6Ă larger last month
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Taylor Swiftâs appearance in New Heights made the showâs monthly downloads more than six times larger, according to a report from Podscribe. The show became the fifth biggest in August. However, it was still beaten, in terms of 60d average episode downloads, by The Diary of a CEO, which averaged 3.4mn downloads per episode (New Heights got an average of 3.2mn). The report also says that Amazon is now podcastingâs biggest advertiser. Po...Pushkinâs new slate of shows includes return for Heavyweight
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Pushkin Industries unveiled their brand new slate for Fall 2025. Weâre promised a new limited series from Malcolm Gladwell, a new season of Fiasco, and the return of Jonathan Goldsteinâs Heavyweight. The New York Times is to close its Audio app. The app was launched in April 2023 to iPhone users, but the company never bothered with an Android app. The main news app will now contain the full podcast archive. True-crime event CrimeCon is to h...In Our Timeâs Melvyn Bragg to step down
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Melvyn Bragg has announced he is to step down from presenting the In Our Time podcast. The 85 year-old first joined the BBC in 1961; the podcast and radio programme has aired since October 1998, and is one of the most popular podcasts from the BBC. In Our Time was the first podcast from the BBC, put into an RSS feed in Nov 2004 by Matt Webb of BBC Radio & Music Interactive. One of...New BBC News podcast for Asia
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The team behind the wildly popular Global News Podcast from the BBC have announced a new Asia-focused news show. The podcast, which will also be available in video on YouTube, will be called Asia Specific, and is slated to start within the next few months, according to the BBCâs SiobhĂĄn Leahy who announced the new podcast at Podcast Day Asia in Jakarta earlier today. Co-presented by Mariko Oi, itâll be...âToo boringâ: number one reason why people stop listening
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The top reasons people leave a podcast are that âit started with too much meaningless chatâ, or that âit was just boringâ, according to The Podcast Study: Growth, a survey of 1,200 podcast listeners first presented at Podcast Movement last month. The data suggests that the first 60 seconds are critical to get right to ensure your listeners stay with you. Today, The Podcast Study: Growth is available, in full, as a free download...Live podcast events are âsurrealâ says Alastair Campbell
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Alastair Campbell, former UK government communications and strategy director and now host of The Rest Is Politics, found it âabsolutely surrealâ to be performing a podcast on stage at a sell-out O2 Arena. âWe had something like 15,000 people there,â he said. âIt was very, very odd.â Campbell revealed this while being interviewed by Count Binface, a man with a garbage bin on his head who has stood three times for election as...WTF is a book
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When WTF with Marc Maron goes away, what will you have to remember the show by? How about the official graphic novel? The book will be launched on Sep 4 on Kickstarter: itâs already fully funded. Triton Digital released its Canada Podcast Ranker for July. With no change in the top 5, CBCâs Front Burner remains #1; CBC/Radio-Canada remains the #1 network. In Good Tape, Dane...Learn how podcast advertising works
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Acast has launched the Acast Ads Academy - two courses to gain certification on how podcast advertising works. Those who pass the final exam of either course receive a certification that validates their expertise. The company hopes to train thousands in its first year. Exclusive: Chartable is going away. We know, youâve heard this before - but this time, itâs going away for...More data about your podcast, in one place
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Exclusive: To help with the tedious job of manually getting consumption data from lots of different platforms, Podstock has launched âEpisode 360â, a tool that matches your short-form clips to their parent episodes, to let you easily calculate total reach for your shows, including those social media clips. The tool also pulls listener retention data across Apple, Spotify and YouTube. Almost half of YouTube podcast user...No Emmy Awards for podcasts
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In Variety, we learn that video podcasts arenât eligible to win an Emmy. âPodcasts are not eligible if itâs a straight video recording of the audio podcast,â according to a spokesperson. (The Golden Globes have a new podcast award, however). Spotify has released data on Gen Zâs use of podcasts on the platform. Thereâs an increase of listening to podcast streams in s...Now, Golden Mike Awards for podcasts
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The âGolden Mike Awardsâ for broadcast radio and TV news have opened the awards program to independent podcast producers from around the US. One of the most prestigious and difficult to win awards, youâve from Sep 1 to Oct 3 to enter. AdLarge, the fwd. network, and NumberEight have partnered to produce what they dub âprivacy-first audience targetingâ. The tool uses AI to âleverage anonymized first-party...Captivate announces monetisation, remote recording
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Growth-oriented podcast host Captivate has announced a significant set of new product launches later this year. Products include a saleable feed drop platform; Captivate Ads, an ad marketplace that scales with your podcast (including access to the DAX marketplace); and Captivate Studio, its own remote recording tool, able to record up to seven participants which is integrated into Captivateâs existing guest booking and in...Now, books get visual additions too
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As podcasts grapple with what visuals means to our audio-first experience, itâs the turn of books. âAs part of Spotifyâs broader ambition to reimagine audiobooks as a multisensory format, weâve expanded our Follow-Along feature, which is an immersive experience that syncs time-stamped illustrations, graphics, and media with audio narration. Think of it as bringing the visual richness of a physical book into the digital age.â Or, think of it as the chapter art that is...Podcast listeners are listening longer
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Podcast listeners are listening longer, according to new data shared at Podcast Movement yesterday. Weekly listeners consume 6.3 hours of podcasts a week on average, according to the latest data from The Podcast Landscape - 5% higher than the previous year. The full data will be released in a free webinar on Thursday Sep 4 at 2pm Eastern. The 100 Greatest Podcasts of All Time were published by Left Of Dial Media. The product of votes from more than 300 au...Wonda launches: a creation-by-conversation tool
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Wondercraft today launches âWondaâ, which it calls âthe first AI agent built for content creation â enabling users to create, edit, and refine professional audio and video by simple conversation.â We thought weâd try it out to create âThe Podnews Guide to Dallasâ, which, as youâd expect, has things to do in Dallas and information about decent craft beer in the city. You can hear the whole show in the Podnews Ext...Podcast Movement and Sounds Profitable announce merger
Sponsored by Riverside. Heading to Podcast Movement in Dallas? Stop by our booth (#408) to say hello to Stephen and the team from Riverside to talk all things podcasting!
On the eve of Podcast Movement 2025 in Dallas, itâs been announced that Podcast Movement and Sounds Profitable have merged in a seven-figure deal. Bryan Barletta becomes President of Podcast Movement. Dan Franks will continue producing the event as President of Event Movement, an independent production company. Podcast Movementâs flagship event in 2026 will now be held in New York City in September. It was due to be held in S...New Heights in numbers
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Billboard reports record numbers for Taylor Swiftâs appearance on New Heights. The outlet reports 9mn views on YouTube in the first twelve hours, and some data from Spotify - a â2,500% increaseâ in average streams, and female listeners up by 618%. However, in what might be a missed opportunity for podcasting, the ART19-hosted podcast from Wondery hasnât published any data about podcast downloads, leaving the pres...Libsynâs $100 million payout for creators
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Libsyn has announced it has now paid over $100mn in creator payouts. Year-on-year, the company paid-out 40% more revenue between Jan-Jul 2025. Senior members of the team will be at Podcast Movement next week. Exclusive: Rhapsody Voices has announced a spin-out from Evergreen Podcasts, and has relaunched as a boutique agency focused on the podcast and creator economy. Evergreen is leading a new round of investment. The...3 is the magic number for podcasting
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Exclusive: Most podcast listeners only make room for three titles in their weekly routine. Thatâs one of the key findings from The Podcast Study: Growth, the results of which will be revealed next week at Podcast Movement (Wed 12.15pm, Keynote Stage). Tim Bronsil told Podnews: âIn a world where shelf space is limited, the podcasts that combine strong content with active relationship building have the...New Heights gets Taylor Swift as guest
Sponsored by Riverside. Your podcast deserves more than audio. Riverside captures studioâquality video and audio, cleans tracks with AI, and autoâgenerates shareable clips, so episodes are published before your first coffee.
Finally! Wondery show New Heights will finally get Taylor Swift as a special guest in tomorrowâs episode - itâs Taylorâs first interview since 2023. Is it a declaration of love? Or is it also an opportunity to promote a new album? iHeartMedia released its Q2/25 financial results. Podcast revenue was up 28% year-on-year to $134mn. Its traditional radio business fell 7%. Podcasting now accounts for 14.3% of the com...âUnfilteredâ podcasts on TV cancelled
Sponsored by Riverside. Your podcast deserves more than audio. Riverside captures studioâquality video and audio, cleans tracks with AI, and autoâgenerates shareable clips, so episodes are published before your first coffee.
In South Africa, satellite TV provider DStv announced it was putting eight video podcasts onto its TV channels. âThis is ... a bold step into the future where linear television meets the gutsy, unfiltered world of digital storytelling,â says Shirley Adonisi, director for channel owner M-Net. But, the âunfiltered worldâ doesnât always work with broadcast standards. Five months later, at least two shows have been cancelled, fol...Podcast listening on TV doubles in 2 years
Sponsored by Riverside. Your podcast deserves more than audio. Riverside captures studioâquality video and audio, cleans tracks with AI, and autoâgenerates shareable clips, so episodes are published before your first coffee.
Consuming podcasts on TV has doubled in the UK in the past two years, according to Edison Researchâs The UK Podcast Consumer 2025, which was released yesterday. The research also suggests that Spotify is the main podcast platform used in the country - BBC Sounds being more popular than Apple Podcasts. Nielsen launched Nielsen Podcast Fusion, a new dataset powered by Edison Research. It integrates Edison...The biggest UK shows in the US
Sponsored by Riverside. Your podcast deserves more than audio. Riverside captures studioâquality video and audio, cleans tracks with AI, and autoâgenerates shareable clips, so episodes are published before your first coffee.
Exclusive: Ahead of todayâs UK Podcast Consumer 2025 webinar (at 2pm London time today; 9am Eastern - still time to register), Edison Research have revealed the power of UK podcasting. The biggest ten shows in the UK reach a staggering 2.3mn Americans every week. Two of those shows are from Goalhanger: founder Jack Davenport is on the keynote stage at Podcast Movement to share his co...Appleâs âBest So Farâ podcasts: in every country
Sponsored by Riverside. Your podcast deserves more than audio. Riverside captures studioâquality video and audio, cleans tracks with AI, and autoâgenerates shareable clips, so episodes are published before your first coffee.
Apple Podcasts released its list of âBest So Farâ shows - which ârecognizes some of the best podcast shows and seasons since the beginning of the year.â The lists are localised for some countries - so Podnews today carries a list of all the countries we could find with a âbest-ofâ list. It shows the focus of Apple - listeners in mainland Europe, most of Latin America an...Amazon cuts Wondery: 110 jobs to go
Sponsored by Riverside. Your podcast deserves more than audio. Riverside captures studioâquality video and audio, cleans tracks with AI, and autoâgenerates shareable clips, so episodes are published before your first coffee.
One of the biggest and most successful podcast producers, Wondery, is to be restructured by Amazon, laying off a reported 110 people including the companyâs CEO, Jen Sargent. Wondery was bought by Amazon at the end of 2020 for $300mn, then doubled its staff. It currently has around 360 published shows. Wonderyâs narrative podcast studio will be combined with Audible. Marshall Lewy, Wonderyâs Chief Content Of...Amy Poehler makes the top 50 US podcasts
Sponsored by Riverside. Your podcast deserves more than audio. Riverside captures studioâquality video and audio, cleans tracks with AI, and autoâgenerates shareable clips, so episodes are published before your first coffee.
Edison Podcast Metrics released the top 50 US podcasts for Q2/2025. The top 5 is unchanged. Amy Poehlerâs Good Hang is new in the top 50 (it debuted in mid-March). The Dan Bongino Show is the highest faller, now out of the top 50 after Bongino was replaced by Vince Coglianese. Our list includes podcast hosting companies. Spotifyâs Megaphone host 20, Simplecast from SiriusXM host 12, ART19 and Omny Stu...ID checks in UK and Australia to listen to podcasts
Sponsored by Riverside. Your podcast deserves more than audio. Riverside captures studioâquality video and audio, cleans tracks with AI, and autoâgenerates shareable clips, so episodes are published before your first coffee.
Spotify is adding age verification for users in the UK to access mature content, including podcasts marked as âexplicitâ. It uses a service called Yoti, which employs face scanning or asks you to upload images of your ID. Itâs part of the UK's Online Safety Act. UK podcast The News Agents recently reported on a story where the UK government mistakenly leaked the identities...Ingredients for branded podcast success: JAR rebrands
Sponsored by Riverside. The online podcast editor that cuts down editing time. Riverside now offers separate track editing, audio enhancement, EQ, filler word removal, and music. Everything to produce professional podcasts fast.
Branded podcast company JAR Audio is now JAR Podcast Solutions, a new brand coupled with a new message to marketers, that âpodcasts should performâ. Co-founder Roger Nairn is a guest on the Podnews Weekly Review tomorrow. Nielsen released The Record: Q2 US audio listening trends. Podcasting accounts for 19% of all ad-supported audio listened-to every day. For 18-34 years-olds, podcasts account for almost a third of a...More users, more profit, but less Spotify ad revenue
Sponsored by Riverside. The online podcast editor that cuts down editing time. Riverside now offers separate track editing, audio enhancement, EQ, filler word removal, and music. Everything to produce professional podcasts fast.
Spotify released its Q2/25 financial report. Year-on-year, the company made 53% more income, and 19% higher profit. It now has 696mn monthly users (up 11%). Spotifyâs revenue from ads decreased by 1% to âŹ453mn (US $523mn). Daniel Ek tackled this head on in his opening remarks: âThe one area that hasnât yet met our expectations is our ads business â we've been moving too slowly and itâs taking lon...Are transcripts coming to Overcast?
Sponsored by Riverside. The online podcast editor that cuts down editing time. Riverside now offers separate track editing, audio enhancement, EQ, filler word removal, and music. Everything to produce professional podcasts fast.
Theyâre already in apps like Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts and Spotify: transcripts might be the next feature to be added to popular iOS app Overcast. John Spurlock has spotted a new tool called âOvercast Transcriberâ accessing podcast episodes. (Support for the funding tag would be excellent too, Marco!) Edison Research is to present The UK Podcast Consumer 2025 in a free webinar on Thu Aug 7...RSS.com launches PAID - monetisation for all
Sponsored by Riverside. The online podcast editor that cuts down editing time. Riverside now offers separate track editing, audio enhancement, EQ, filler word removal, and music. Everything to produce professional podcasts fast.
Podcast hosting company RSS.com has launched PAID: âProgrammatic Ads Inserted Dynamicallyâ. Ads are automatically selected and placed in shows (as preroll, midroll or postroll); podcasters can start earning instantly. All paid RSS customers are eligible with just 10 downloads a month anywhere in the world; payments are made monthly with PayPal (with a minimum payout of just $1). The tool has access to multiple syst...
